Saturday, September 11, 2010

Gaming Podcast Round-up!

I've got a lot of time at my day job to do paperwork which really means that I have a lot of time to listen to Podcasts while I work. I listen to two types of podcasts for the most part: political discussion and gaming podcasts. This is not (nor will it ever be!) a political blog, so that leaves one big category left for me to talk about: gaming podcasts.

There are a lot of really good ones out there, and I want to spend some time today giving some shout-outs and props to the indie radio all-stars that get me through my work day and, just maybe, makes me think about the hobby in a whole new way. These are purely in alphabetical order and all can be found on iTunes. Keep Reading!Clixcast

We don't talk about Heroclix enough around here. The game has really found a second life since N.E.C.A. took over Wizkids. I don't get to play Heroclix on any regular basis, but since we like Supers gaming quite a bit, the mini's are kind of indispensable in being pre-painted and fairly cheap.

Clixcast is advertised as the only Heroclix podcast out there, and to be the best of my abilities it's the only that I have been able to find. The only drawback is that the release schedule is a little unreliable, but they do still get new shows out. What I really like about the podcast is that they cover tons of different topics including news, strategies, Wizkids news, and comics.

I shouldn't really need to explain why Fear the Boot is good. These guys are kind of the old men of gaming podcasting and have a very good formula that has proven time and again to create a very good show. They've got over 200 shows and don't seem to ever run out of new topic to debate.

I love FtB because they always make me think of something new and are incredibly inspiring to try out new concepts. The best part is that, while they have an admitted love for Classic Battletech role-playing, every topic they examine can be applied to almost any RPG. You know it's good stuff when they have pulled off three cons based on the podcast.

OBG is a board game podcast with experienced reviewers and designers touching on lots of different board gaming issues. OBG and FtB are actually very good companion pieces in that OBG does for board games with FtB does for RPG's (enough abbreviations yets?).

I like OBG because, unlike RPG's which can be talked about in a conceptual way much easier, board games need to be experienced first-hand many times to really get a feel. Yes, places like Boardgame Geek have very good reviews, but listening to OBG it feels like you're having a conversation with someone who has a very clear understanding of mechanics. While they focus on board games in general, they also review many, many games. If you're curious about a game, they've probably made a show about it.

I've talked about RPPR before, so I'll keep this short and sweet: RPPR is the podcast that really helped guide me into GM'ing and gaming on a higher level, and in a lot of indirect ways, they're responsible for making me The Hopeless Gamer. I'd like to think that the RPPR guys would be what we would sound like on a podcast, but I'd be afraid to try it and prove myself wrong.

RPPR focuses on RPG's (obviously) and they have a similar approach to discussing higher-concept topics like FtB but I feel like their advice is just more practical. Part of it is that the advice is more vague (and this is a good thing) and so lends itself better to be applied to a larger variety of games. Also they have an amazing Actual Play itunes channel with a very good variety of games shown off.

Go Listen!

That's it for now. I do listen to several other podcasts that fall into the "inspirational" category. That is to say that they inspire in me new ways to create twisted and bizzare stories to use in my games. Hopefully you'll give these podcasts a try and I'll be able to follow-up in the future with these other oddball podcasts!